Fire and Blood

“The frightened child who sheltered in my manse died on the Dothraki sea, and was reborn in blood and fire. This dragon queen who wears her name is a true Targaryen.”–George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons

The world of Westeros is in turmoil. The Great Houses play the game of thrones on bloody battlefields and in the subtle intrigues of court. Even as the lords and ladies of Westeros prepare for open war, the last scions of House Targaryen plot their eventual return to claim the Iron Throne with fire and blood. In A Game of Thrones: The Card Game, you take command of these factions, controlling iconic characters from A Song of Ice and Fire in your quest for power.

Prior to the limited release of A Game of Thrones: The Card Game at Gen Con Indy 2015, we posted a series of faction previews that explored each of the factions’ cards and strategies in detail. Now, in the final weeks before the game’s release, we’re exploring just a few of the decks that you'll be able to make with your Core Sets. Two weeks ago, we looked at a deck that showcased what House Baratheon could accomplish with the help of their House Greyjoy allies, but today we travel across the Narrow Sea to throw our support wholly behind House Targaryen.

The Plots

When you lead the Targaryens back to Westeros with fire and blood, you’ll focus on destroying your opponent’s characters by using burn effects like Dracarys! and winning military challenges. Accordingly, the plots for this deck have a toolbox focus, offering answers for multiple types of threats. Sneak Attack can be a powerful opening plot—it can’t be affected by Naval Superiority and losing a two-claim military challenge can set your opponent back significantly. Alternatively, you may use Sneak Attack to close out the game with a final power challenge. Filthy Accusations offer you a way to control the flow of challenges, while Wildfire Assault keeps your opponent from marshaling characters faster than you can kill them.

Other plots in this plot deck shore up some of the Targaryen faction’s weaknesses. Counting Coppers compensates for the lack of draw outside of Daenerys Targaryen and Littlefinger. A Noble Cause gives you the gold to play your powerful Lords and Ladies, such as Daenerys Targaryen, Khal Drogo, and Magister Illyrio. Finally, high-powered characters like Khal Drogo and Daenerys attract negative attachments like Milk of the Poppy. Confiscation is essential for keeping your most important characters safe.

More notably, this deck can make good use of the Supporting the Faith plot card. Supporting the Faith forces both players to return all of their gold to the treasury at the beginning of the challenges phase, making it much harder for your opponent to play events or ambush characters into play. Normally, this restriction would punish you as well, but the Fealty agenda allows you to reduce the cost of a loyal card by one, which makes both Dracarys! and Fire and Blood free to play. What’s more, the large amounts of gold offered by Supporting the Faith gives you enough gold to play nearly any card in your deck.

Burn Away Resistance

When playing this deck, your goal is to aggressively control the game by killing your opponent’s characters. This means you’ll want to win plenty of military challenges and play cards like Dracarys!, Plaza of Punishment, and Tears of Lys to kill your opponent’s characters.

Obviously, a key point of this deck is Daenerys Targaryen. Her global STR reduction is crucial to pushing your challenges through, and her insight keyword is one of your only sources of card draw. As you gather Daenerys’s dragons—Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion—she becomes increasingly more powerful. Because you ideally want Daenerys Targaryen and a wide number of supporting characters in play, Wildfire Assault can prove problematic, but if any of the dragons are killed, you can use Fire and Blood to immediately bring them back to play. If you can equip Daenerys with Seal of the Hand, she becomes that much more powerful: she can participate in a challenge and immediately stand to reinstate her STR reduction.

Khal Drogo heads up the part of your deck focused on winning military challenges. By allowing you to make two military challenges every round, Khal Drogo greatly increases your ability to destroy your opponent’s characters. When you’re attempting to push these challenges through, you can use Filthy Accusations to kneel your opponents main defender and STR-reducing effects to make it easier to win challenges and trigger events that require you to win by five or more STR. Additional potent characters like the Unsullied and Ser Jorah Mormont help you overpower your opponent and destroy his character base, and Waking the Dragon lets you stand a character to participate in multiple challenges.

Ultimately, though, you’ll need to do more than just kill characters to win the game. Fortunately, House Targaryen offers a wide number of characters with renown. Both Khal Drogo and Ser Jorah Mormont have renown inherently, and Daenerys Targaryen can gain renown by having Drogon in play. If you save the Sneak Attack plot until the endgame, you might use it to close the game with one huge challenge.

Cross the Narrow Sea

The Dothraki fear the salt water of the Narrow Sea, but for the Mother of Dragons, they are willing to brave the ocean and do battle. Prepare to lead House Targaryen to reclaim the Iron Throne, and join us in two weeks for another deck overview!

Pre-order your copies of A Game of Thrones: The Card Game at your local retailer today.

A Game of Thrones: The Card Game Second Edition is the second edition of a beloved Living Card Game®, challenging players to take command of the Houses of Westeros and battle to claim the Iron Throne! By succeeding in military challenges, cunning intrigues, and political encounters, you may have the chance to rule the Seven Kingdoms, but those who fail will fade into ignominy.